Frozen
by Evita the Akita
Summary: Fluffy oneshot. It's the middle of winter, the heat's broken, and Sonny's stuck minding the store. Luckily, he has Pete to keep him warm. SLASH FLUFF. Usnavi also makes a brief appearance. Rated for brief language.


_**Veni Scripsi Vici**_

**NOTES****: I place all the blame on Silverone3 for making me fall in love with this pairing. I saw _In the Heights_**** a few weeks ago on my 16th birthday; it was my first Broadway show. I met 14 members of that crazily talented cast, including Robin (Sonny) and Seth (Pete). The entire cast is so incredibly sweet and I feel so privileged to have seen their show. Lin-Man is a god. That is all.**

**Frozen**

Sonny was tapping his foot (really, his whole leg) behind the counter, first, in impatience for Pete to come over, and second, in an attempt to keep warm. He rubbed his gloved hands together and swore under his breath, which he could see perfectly even inside the store. He smiled and stood up when he finally saw Pete through the front window.

The door swung open. "Hey, Sonny." Pete grinned, starting to take off his oversized leather jacket before he'd made it through the door. As he stepped in and the door closed behind him, he paused abruptly, the coat halfway off his arms, which were otherwise bare. "Whoa…" He drew the word out, looking as though he'd been smacked in the face. "Shit, man, you got the AC on or something?" he asked, pulling the coat back on. Sonny took a second to admire Pete's style. Under the leather jacket, he still only had his usual tank top, jean vest, bandanna, and ripped jeans. Sonny smiled; only Pete could wear torn jeans and only one pair of sleeves in this weather and still somehow be warm. Pete's gloves were fingerless; Sonny's own fingers were numb under thick, awkward marshmallow-gloves, as he liked to call them. He felt that 'thick and awkward' described his overall appearance at the moment as he had stuffed himself into several t-shirts, a sweatshirt, two pairs of sweatpants, and a skullcap, none of which were working as well as he'd have liked them to.

After this brief moment of envy over whatever was keeping Pete warm, Sonny answered, "The heat died. Usnavi went out in search of a space heater, so if you want to hang out, it's got to be here. I got to watch the store." As he said this, he came around to the other side of the counter and jumped up to sit on it.

"That's fine, man." Pete walked over to lean on the counter, looking up at Sonny. "My business is shut down for the day anyway."

"Why?"

Pete gave a wry little half-smile. "Paint froze."

"Yeah, coffee's not doing so great, either." They both laughed and Sonny thought he felt a little warmer at the sight of Pete's charmingly sweet smile. Still laughing a little, he reached over to rub Pete's head. "Aw, Jesus, Pete, you're freezing…" He continued caressing Pete's head; Pete leaned into Sonny's hand like a little bald dog.

"Hey, don't worry. I'm cool."

"Here…" Sonny jumped down from the counter and pulled off his hat, reaching up to put it on Pete's head.

"Hey– No…" Pete ducked and pushed away Sonny's hands.

"Why?"

"You need it more than me."

"Bullshit. I got hair. You don't."

Pete grinned. "Okay…" He nodded, surrendering the top of his head. Sonny reached up and put the hat in place, rolling up its brim and pulling it down until it hugged Pete's head perfectly.

Pete raised his head back up, but Sonny kept his annoyingly huge-looking marshmallow-hands on Pete's cheeks, marveling at how much better Pete looked in the skullcap than he had. He stared up into Pete's eyes as Pete whispered, "Thanks." Pete slowly ran his hand through Sonny's hair as they silently stared at each other. After a few seconds, Sonny's eyes automatically drifted with his thought process, briefly settling on Pete's lips. "You gonna kiss me, then?" Pete murmured.

Sonny smiled and blushed a little. As he looked back up into Pete's eyes, he was struck by how far up he had to look. He then came to the realization of the interesting fact that they had, over the course of their still very short relationship, only kissed sitting down, a position that conveniently eliminated the glaring difference in height. Obviously, some choreography was now in order.

Sonny looked Pete up and down (more up than down), letting go of his cheeks to cross his arms. "Well, either you got to come down here, or I got to go find a box."

Pete laughed, draping his arms over Sonny's shoulders. "You're so cute…"

"Yeah, you're only the thousandth person in the world to ever tell me that." Even as he said it, he realized something. "It's different from you, though…" he whispered. He didn't understand it, but he knew it was true.

The edge of Pete's smile curved up ever so slightly, making it somehow so much more adoring than before. After looking Sonny up and down (more down than up), an idea seemed to flash over his eyes. Wordlessly, he bent down, wrapped his arms around Sonny's waist, and lifted him into the air. Sonny bent his legs up and put his arms around Pete's shoulders as Pete leaned back, supporting all of Sonny's weight. Sonny wasn't afraid of slipping; Pete's strong arms were firmly locked around his waist. In the air, their lips met, and for a moment, Sonny felt completely weightless.

As they drew their heads back and smiled at each other, Pete walked Sonny over and sat him down on the counter, leaning on it like he had before.

Sonny kept a gloved hand on the back of Pete's neck. "Thanks for, uh… accommodating." As Pete laughed, Sonny added, "I'm surprised you could pick me up. All the extra clothes add, like, fifty pounds."

Pete smiled a huge, earnest smile up at him. "Nah, you're tiny."

Sonny's fingers subconsciously rubbed Pete's neck. "Yeah, but I'm still a big marshmallow."

"Well, yeah…" Hardly ever seeming to think about it, he added, "But you're my marshmallow, so it's cool." They both laughed, and Sonny remarked to himself that that was one of the reasons why he loved Pete so much; because Pete could never lie to him. He always just said what he felt, which, in Sonny's opinion, made him charming.

They were interrupted by the sound of someone kicking the front door. Upon seeing Usnavi outside with his arms full of space heater, Sonny called out, "Got it," jumped down from the counter, and ran to get the door.

"Hey," Usnavi greeted Sonny as he came through the door and made a beeline for behind the counter, "stay off the counter, please. Damn, this thing's heavier than it looks." He disappeared behind the counter, busying himself with plugging in the space heater. "It's Kevin and Camila's – hey, kid," he interrupted himself, his waving hand making a brief appearance over the top of the counter. Before Pete could answer him, he continued, "And I just about froze my ass off marching around, trying to find someone with one of these that wasn't using it, but you know, pacienca y – Heat! Finally!" He popped up from behind the counter, triumphantly throwing his gloves onto the counter.

"Uh, now that that problem's over with…" Pete began. Sonny recognized the awkward air Pete got about him whenever he asked Usnavi a favor.

"Yeah?"

"Can I– Can I stay over? Tonight?"

"Yeah, sure. Is it your dad again, or…"

"Yeah."

"Sorry, kid. But yeah, sure, it's no problem."

The awkwardness faded and a grin spread over Pete's face. "Thanks, man. As long as you got heat."

"Over there, we do," Usnavi answered, leaving the counter to see to something down a few aisles as Sonny relievedly tossed his marshmallow-gloves next to Usnavi's.

"Cool," Pete called after Usnavi. He then walked over to Sonny and gave his hand a little squeeze before stowing his coat under the counter.


End file.
